Wot??? ANOTHER page about making the traditional end for a heaving line, A.K.A. "The Monkey's Fist"?

Well, this one is a bit different: most sites teach you to make the little buggars up "in hand", using your left (or right... We're an equal-opportunity shop here...) hand as the jig.

That's just fine if you're using braided clothesline (the usual material for a heaving-line) or some small laid line such as 1/4" thru 5/8" manila, but for our purposes here, we'll be working in appx. 3/16" line for making decorative fists for zipper pulls, earrings or the like, for which we will also make up a small jig-form.

If you REALLY want to be considered somewhat strange, you could assay a ten-pass monkey's fist using dental floss. Yes, someone DID do that and they are EXTRAORDINARILY odd.

As usual, there will be text down the left side of the page and my patented system of indistinct miniature pictures which may or may not bear some relation to the text scattered down the right side. The font is ARIAL and the page is constructed using Yahoo's WYSIWYG, "Site Builder" disast... I mean, program. This will explain what happened should your browser refuse to render the page as we might desire. I use FireFox as my browser, and I DO check with other browsers to see if all's well, but one never knows, do one?

Clicking on the pictures will (usually) take you to a larger version for perusal by the (like myself) visually incompetent. [Except for the line drawings... Those are (like a portion of my anatomy) as large as they'll ever get.]

So... Off we go and I hope this will be of some help to the two of you who are interested.

You will need some SQUARE toothpicks, four 8d finish nails, superglue,a sharp pair of nippers and some small, strong string.

Take about 30 - 35 toothpicks and cut them in half with the sharp nippers. It isto your advantage to have these cuts reasonably smooth. You'll need 65half-toothpicks in all, so you may want to cut some extras as well.

Arrange 25 of them in a square (5/side) and use the superglue to glue themtogether. You may use whatever glue you prefer, but I use superglue becauseI have it in quantity for many other purposes and it dries quite rapidly.

Be sure that you get all the pointy ends facing the same way!

Now take 5 toothpicks, arrange them flat and glue them together (do this 4 times),then glue another five on top of them, so you now have 4 rectangular pieces asshown. Glue these to the square block so that you leave a notch in eachcorner.

So: Here we go with the first Inflatable Picture Of The Tutorial.

Take a look... That's where you'll put the four 8d finish nails (intothose little crochets created in the step above...) and be sure you getthe nailheads the same end as all the wee pointy bits. The reason willbecome apparent later.

Take the strong twine and wrap the entire assembly asshown, wrapping at least 1-1/2", but wrapping the completearea where the toothpicks are is OK, too... Just leave a littlebit uncovered at the bottom to prevent the line we'll use tomake the monkey's fist from catching on it....Same reasonall the cuts should be somewhat smooth and the pointy bitsup at the dead end of the appliance. Glue up the wholemegillah and let it dry well, then do a second coat.

Now, for those of you who are OCD sufferers, you are quite right... The block in the picture IS 8 'picks across, not 7 per the diagram. I made it for use with larger line, then promptly lost the other one. Klutzy, but typical.

Still, I recommend doing the smaller 7-across to start with.

You'll notice that the nails will, after time, have a tendency to slip a bit as the glue won't "hold" to the metal that well... Just stick a bit of paper in to wedge it and it should hold just fine. You may also have to bend the nails a little to achieve a square box with the tips. A square alignment will actually aid in packing the interior of the monkey's fist later.

MAKING UP THE MONKEY'S FIST

Since we are practising making these things, cut about 24" of line, glue up about 2 inches on one end and let dry, then clip of the end forming the 45° tip I am so fond of (see other tutorials). Put an overhand knot in the bitter end of the line so that you'll have a stopper to prevent the line being pulled out when tightening up later. Trust me.

Hold the jig on one hand and drape the knotted end as shown, leaving enough line so the knotwill reach the next leg. Then clamp the line with your thumb....

As shown... [Note: if you are going to be making a button, a zip-pull, anearring or something that will require a small loop, this is the way to startit. If, however, you will be making a model heaving-line for a knot board, leave sufficient line (according to your skills) to accomplish a splice of bothlines into one, or enough to do a Royal Navy heaving line, or....]See instructions on page 2 for more info on the button loop.

Once clamped, take four turns around the jig, stopping when you get to the fourth leg....

Then, instead of making a fifth pass, make a 90° turn and goACROSS the work as shown, then do four turns in THAT plane of existence....

As (not surprisingly) shown..... Again, stop when you have four turns showing and get ready for the fiddley part...

up two inches on the working end) and the diagram doesn't really help, does it?

Clamp the line with your thumb and put the end THROUGH between thetwo sets of four lines and out in the back. If you put a bend in the end of the lineit will facilitate having it feed thru that 90° turn, which can be obstinate. Havingthe bend in it allows you just that little git of extra advantage to do this smoothly...After coming down across the four turns, make another 90° and back between thetwo sets of four turns...

Almost done part one... Now do three turns as shown but do not "finish" thelast turn.... If we were finishing up the last turn, the line would go from front to back,but we need to "stuff the turkey" in order to maintain that rotund little profileeveryone loves so much....

I accomplish this with cotton balls... Just strip them out and use a piece ofbamboo cooking skewer to stuff it inside the fist until it's pretty full.

If you're making a standard-sized heaving line, you'd use some cut up ropefibres in place of the cotton, or a wooden ball or a rubber ball....

Just how much cotton to use is a hit-or-miss proposition, and one of themajor determining factors affecting the finished size of the monkey's fist,along with the size of the line and how aggressively you tighten thingsup.

My rule of thumb is to get it just full enough that when I start to tighten things up(next page) I have to take just a little out so that the fist forms but the cottonfilling is still concealed. If you take out too much or don't stuff it enough, thenthe lines forming the monkey's fist will jump over each other and you won't have a smooth-appearing finished object. You'll find your ideal stuffing amount very quickly.

Make your last pass while the fist is on the jig, then carefully remove theassembly.

Slide it off gently but it will hold it's shape fairly well. If it does not, then there's something wrong with it.

On the second page, I'll address tightening up and you'll soon bless the factthat you made the overhand knot and left the little "pigtail"... It will prove ofgreat value to the effort.

Let me also stress that if you are NOT sure that all is well so far, then take the monkey's fist apart,go have a cuppa, re-read the directions and start again. Usually, the first time thru is adisaster and the second time it's MUCH easier and a better result.

As always, if you are stuck somewhere, drop me an EMAIL and I'll endeavour to get you back on track.